Talk:Basket Case/@comment-3575890-20140303055215
This episode just solidified why the very idea of Bethyl makes my skin crawl. There is such a significant maturity gap. Throughout this episode, Beth mostly behaved like an impetuous teenage girl, and that is perfectly understandable because that is precisely what she is, just like Carl, no matter how aged beyond his years he may be, is still a young boy at the end of the day. Her young dialect coupled with her rebellious teenage impulses, frivolous ideations, and general naivete especially reinforces the steepness of the age difference. Her idea to get plastered in the middle of a zombie apocalypse of all places offers clear evidence of her immaturity because honestly, who prioritizes attaining booze to get drunk on of all the most inopportune, inconvenient times? I can certainly understand Beth's inclination to turn to an outlet to numb the pain given the recent turn of events, but my god, there's a time and place for these sorts of things and smack-dab in the middle of a post-apocalyptic world overrun by flesh-eating zombies is not one of them! But that's just the point of this whole episode, isn't it? To show she is just a teenage girl and one that's feeling quite rebellious and impulsive at the moment. Every gesticulation, action, and vocal communication all comes back to that she is significantly less experienced, responsible (although drunken Daryl has the responsibility capacity of a twelve year old), adjusted, and mature than Daryl. In fact, Beth's maturity level is actually more on par with Carl's and in that, there is less of a maturity mismatch with her and Carl than her and Daryl. In fact, the only aspect in where she and Daryl are on equal footing at all is in terms of emotional stability levels as Daryl's alcohol-laden outburst in the house clearly evidences that he is just as wrecked as she is. The alcohol unleashed pent up emotions from past and present pains that needed to come out. Thankfully, I do not think Bethyl is happening in any romantic capacity since, in my perspective at least, Daryl sees Beth as a young kid. Beth even comments that he acts as an overbearing chaperone and treats her like a kid, just like her older brother Shawn used to, whom Beth later brings up to Daryl when the both of them have let down their walls, and I think we are supposed to take the emergence of a parallel from that. Signification that Beth is beginning to see her older brother in Daryl. I do think that Beth and Daryl are only going to get closer, but probably not in the way that Bethyl fans hope. They're holding hands in the promo, but you have to consider the circumstances at hand. They are standing at a grave site. Now that they've bonded, Daryl is going to step up as the big brother role for Beth and protect and console her accordingly the way he failed to before because of his own emotional baggage holding him back. This is completely unrelated to my main contention concerning Bethyl, but one thing that did stand out to me was the foreshadowing in Beth's admission of certainty that Daryl will survive to the end. I'm confident that may just be a feasible possibility. I hope so anyway. Overall, I loved this episode. It shed needed clarity and insight on my favorite character and answered many questions that I'd been pondering about Daryl Dixon since the beginning.